Edward Snowden has been heralded as a hero and cursed as a traitor. His name is known across the world for his decision to leak classified information about secret NSA surveillance programs. In news interviews he has portrayed himself as a serious man who sacrificed his comfortable lifestyle for his principles.

But before all that, he was geeky high school dropout who loved playing the video game Tekken, was obsessed with Japanese culture and anime and joked about attracting 'nubile young girls' with his 'girlish figure.'

A 2002 profile he posted on the defunct anime site Ryuhana Press reveals a window into Snoden's personality as a computer savvy 18-year-old.

The Maryland teenager's parents had just divorced and he was working for friends, who set up Ryuhana Press as a way to sell Japanese anime and magna artwork.

Pictures from 2002 show Edward Snowden pulling down his pants (left) and attached clothespins to his chest (right) when he worked as a webmaster and editor for a Japanese anime company run by friends in Maryland

Whistleblower: Edward Snowden appears in a more recent photo. He does not appear to be active on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter - at least not under his own name

Snowden is seen cutting a rug at a dance in 2002. He bragged about attracting young women in online postings he made as a teenager

This is the avatar posted beside Edward Snowden's biography in 2002

The revelations come as Congressman Peter King, the New York Republican who is the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, called for the arrest of Guardian journalist Glen Greenwald, the reporter who broke many of Snowden's leaks and has worked closely with the whistleblower.

Several top politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, have called for the arrest and prosecution of Snowden for exposing the National Security Agency Secrets.

King is the first to call for the arrest of a journalist in the case.

Snowden went by the nicknames 'The True
HOOHA' and 'Phish' and spoke in hacker slang, referring to his 'lamer
friends' - non-hackers - and talked about attending Otakon, a convention
for anime lovers in Baltimore, Maryland.

'I like my girlish figure that attracts
girls,' he wrote, 'and I like my lamer friends. That's the best
biography you'll get out of me, coppers!'

He joked that he 'got bullied' into being an editor on the website by a gaggle of artists and 'beautiful nubile young girls.'

As an adult, the former CIA employee has
not left much of a digital trail on the Internet. Snowden, who turns 30
later this month, does not appear to be active on social media sites
like Facebook or Twitter - at least not under his own name.

But the website of Ryuhana Press, a now
defunct start-up that had sold anime art, offers a glimpse of Snowden as
a youth.

As its web editor, Snowden's profile page is a mix of truth,
sarcasm and silly jokes.

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For example, he listed his correct
birthday - June 21, 1983 - and noted that it falls on the Summer
Solstice, the longest day of the year. But he also claimed to be 37
years old and to have fathered two preteen children.

'I really am a nice guy,' Snowden wrote
on his profile page. 'You see, I act arrogant and cruel because I was
not hugged enough as a child, and because the public education system
turned it's (sic) wretched, spiked back on me.'

Republican Congressman Peter King said Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who printed the NSA leaks, should be prosecuted

Fighting back: Greenwald has fired back, saying that King's allegations were based on lies

He wrote that he favored purple sunglasses and he praised the Baltimore Orioles baseball team.

Reuters viewed the website on Tuesday and contacted former company employees for comment. On Wednesday, the website had been taken down.

Details of Snowden's past
emerged Wednesday as news broke that he gave an interview to the South
China Morning Post in which he claimed that the NSA has hacked the
country's universities, businesses and politicians.

He said the agency had hundreds of
targets - including the Chinese University of Hong Kong - from as far
back as 2009, but that these were just a fraction of the 61,000 NSA
hacking operations carried out globally.

He added that none of the documents revealed any information about Chinese military systems.

'We hack network backbones – like
huge internet routers, basically – that give us access to the
communications of hundreds of thousands of computers without having to
hack every single one,' he explained.

This poster of Snowden, which he presumably designed, promotes a fake album called 'Gold Plated Xtacy'

The rail-thin 18-year-old Snowden joked about his 'girlish figure' and how it attracted young women

Edward Snowden (left) is pictured in seventh grade in a photo taken from a Crofton Middle School yearbook. He is pictured (right) during his sophomore year at Arundel High School.

FROM ANIME LOVER TO NSA LEAKER

2002 - Snowden is 18 years old. He is working for a Japanese anime company run by friends in Maryland

May 2004 - Enlists in the U.S. Army reserve

September 2004 - Says he left the Army after breaking both his legs in a training accident

2007 - Gets a job with the Central Intelligence Agency and is stationed in Geneva

2009 - Joins the NSA as a contractor2013 - Employed by Booz Allen Hamilton in Hawaii

Early May, 2013 - Snowden makes contact with the Washington Post regarding his trove of information on the NSA's surveillance of call and Internet data. A few weeks later, he contacts The Guardian

May 20, 2013 - Snowden requests a leave of absence from his job and flees to Hong Kong June 5 and 6, 2013 - The Guardian and the Washington Post report on Snowden's leaked documents

June 9, 2013 - Snowden reveals himself in an interview with The Guardian

June 12, 2013 - Snowden gives an interview to the South China Morning Post in which he claimed that the NSA has hacked the country's universities, businesses and politicians

The hour-long interview, which took
part in a secret location on Wednesday, came after Snowden fled to Hong
Kong from his home in Hawaii on May 20 after leaking sensitive documents
about the NSA about its data-collection programs.

Peter King, the controversial House Republican in charge of national security issues, said that Greenwald - the first journalist to publish Snowden's claims, should be prosecuted.

He told Fox News on Wednesday: 'Not
only did he disclose this information, he has said he has names of CIA
agents and assets around the world and they’re threatening to disclose
that. ... No right is absolute. And even the press has certain
restrictions...

'But in this case, when you have
someone who has disclosed secrets like this and threatens to release
more, then to me, yes, there has to be, there should be legal action
taken against him. This is a very unusual case with life and death
implications for Americans.'

Greenwald has responded with vigorous denials.

'Just watched the King video; everything he said is based on the blatant *lie that I threatened to disclose names of CIA covert agents,' he tweeted.

Later, he said: 'Only In America can a renowned and devoted terrorism supporter like Peter King be the arbiter of national security and treason.'

King is noted for his support of the Irish Republican Army when the group was targeting British soldiers and civilians with bomb attacks.

Greenwald is a natural born American citizen. There are few recorded examples in American history - and none in the post-September 11-era - of journalists being prosecuted by the U.S. government for publishing classified leaks.

Photographs uploaded by friends for
Snowden's 19th birthday show a young man pulling down his pants for his
colleagues, putting a clothespin on his chest, and dancing.

Yearbookphotos of Snowden in middle school and high school show a clean-cut, smiling young man.

A blog entry from a company employee
teased, 'Who is he? What does he do? Does he really love himself as
much as his shameless marketing would have you believe?'

Snowden wrote on his profile that he
liked online role-playing games (RPG). 'I always wanted to write RPG
campaigns with my spare time, but I'll get about three missions in and
scrap the world for my next, better, powergamin' build.'

Snowden
said he liked playing the popular fighting video game Tekken. He was so
skilled that he attracted a gathering of fans at the 2002 Anime USA
convention, wrote a co-worker on another part of the site.

'He tends to
spontaneously be a ray of sunshine and inspiration. He's a great
listener, and he's eager to help people improve themselves.'

The
co-worker did not reply to inquiries from Reuters on Wednesday. Ryuhana
closed in 2004 as the primary proprietors went off to college and
opened a new business in California, according to the website. Other
contributors to the site could not be reached for comment.

The defunct company listed an address in Fort Meade, Md., next door to the National Security Agency.

Joker: 'I like my girlish figure that attracts girls,' Snowden wrote on his online bio, 'and I like my lamer friends. That's the best biography you'll get out of me, coppers!'